Best Medicine
by WofOZ
Summary: Life is filled with laughs and tears, smiles and fears but in the end, it's the company you keep that can make all the difference. With the boss late on a ridiculously early morning call, a certain detective decides the world needs more laughter. And his teammate decides to come along for the ride.


**One shots seem to be rolling along well for me... I'm posting this one at the same time as posting the next chapter of Mai-Tais and Machine Guns! The writing gods have smiled on me these past few days!**

**Enjoy this short! To Bard15 who inspired the idea and all the others who've reviewed and liked my other one-shot or chapter stories.**

**Hope you all love this one!**

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"Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, which I will undoubtedly deny, but is this or is this not the most beautiful little girl in the world? I mean, forget Helen of Troy, this face would launch a billion ships never mind a thousand!"

"Ah… to early for mythology references brah. Besides I thought you hated mornings." Danny looked up from the brand new picture in his wallet to the man sitting next to him on the hood of his Camaro.

It was indeed early; So stupidly early that the sun had only just crested the buildings around them even though they'd already been sitting there for a half hour. To pass the time Danny had pulled out Grace's brand new school picture that had finally arrived in the mail yesterday.

Six am be damned; His beautiful little girl's smile was more than enough sunshine to keep him wide awake. He hadn't even had his usual morning coffee he was so proud.

"Can't help but admire perfection, babe," Danny grinned like a goofy teenager. He pulled the picture out of his wallet and held it at arms length to admire it a little more. Also to make sure Chin had gotten a good look at it.

Part of Danny also saw the picture as a small victory for him as a father. While Stan and Rachel had wanted the little girl to wear a pink frilly dress with her hair in a granny bun (that Grace hated), Danny had told her to wear whatever made her happy.

Lo and behold his daughter had her hair up in pigtails that she knew was her father's favorite hair style for her and a blue and black sequined top that was Grace's favorite.

She had done her dad proud and Danny would never forget it.

He couldn't, he had photographic evidence.

"Honestly... My Grace... Kids are awesome," he chuckled. "And sometimes a hell of a lot smarter than we are."

"Malia wanted to have kids." All of a sudden Danny's smile dropped from his face and he winced. Here he'd been going on and on about how great it was to have a daughter when Chin's chance at a family had been ripped away from him brutally months ago.

In fact it was only recently that the man seemed to be mostly back to normal.

"Sorry Chin," Danny said quietly. Chin however just smiled a sad smile and shook his head.

"Don't be," he replied. "I just like to think that if Malia and I had had kids they'd be like Grace; Happy, taken care of and loved no matter what." Clearing his throat Danny looked up the street that lead to the parking lot of HQ where the two men were now waiting.

"Mcgarrett would probably turn them into little monsters," he said trying to lighten the mood. "Did I tell you he took Grace fishing?"

"What's wrong with that?" Chin shrugged.

"_Spear _fishing! What kind of animal takes an eight year old _spear_ fishing!?" Danny exclaimed. "I ask him to babysit and he takes her _spear fishing_! And worse, she says she wants to do it again! That it was, and I quote, "The coolest thing she's ever done"." At this Chin chuckled and shook his head.

"The first time Steve Mcgarrett went spear fishing he was five," he explained. Danny scoffed.

"Yeah well Steve's not human. He's a recipe of Rambo, ninja and his beloved C-4 all stuffed in a crust of whoop-ass," he replied. "If you had a kid now they would probably know how to field strip a grenade launcher before they were out of diapers." This time Chin laughed whole-heartily.

Danny considered that to be a win as well.

"Nun-chucks and pull ups?" Chin queried. Danny nodded his head with a smile.

"You'd wake up with a Sippy cup jammed up your nose asking for you to identify yourself in three languages," he added chuckling a bit harder now. "English, baby babble and whatever language Steve's been muttering when he's pissed off."

"While Malia's being held at dirty diaper point with demands for mashed bananas and coco puffs," Chin went on. By now the two men had caught a good case of the giggles and for some reason couldn't quite stop.

Amazingly it was Chin who started the next bout when he said;

"Imagine what Steve and Catherine's kids would be like." Danny couldn't help himself, he snorted and nearly fell off the hood of his car.

"They'd have cammo onsies and assault rifles for teddy bears!" He howled. Chin followed suite chuckling maniacally, which was quite uncharacteristic of the normally stoic man.

"Catherine would probably have twins so they could be a born and bred sniper team," the Hawaiian laughed. Both he and Danny dissolved into fits once again unable to speak for several minutes.

When they finally calmed down Danny took a breath and gave Chin's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"You two would have made great parents," he said suddenly in all seriousness. "Hell half the time you're keeping Steve in line like he's a toddler." Taking a breath Chin closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I don't know how to make this not hurt so much," he said. "You, Kono and Steve have been great but-"

"It's never going to stop hurting Chin," Danny said with blunt honestly. The Hawaiian detective glared at him.

"_Thanks_," he said sarcastically. However Danny gave his teammates shoulder another firmer squeeze and leaned in slightly.

"One day it's going to hurt _less_," the detective continued on. "And _that_ day, is going to be the day you have someone in your life who means something special. Someone Malia would be happy you're with and was taking care of you. A partner. A kid. Or even a best friend, it doesn't matter; Your life isn't over and you have to know Malia wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life alone." Then with confidence added, "Kids may still be in your future Chin-Ho Kelly." To that Chin nodded and sat up a bit more at ease.

"I know she'd want me to be happy," he explained. "I know I _want_ to be happy. That's the part that's so hard." Danny shrugged, released his friend's shoulder and sat back enjoying a warm ray of sun as it lit up Grace's picture in his other hand.

"Then when you're ready, _be_ happy," he replied. "And know the day you do, is the day Malia will be happy with you."

Chin smiled another somber but grateful grin.

"Thanks Danny, that does mean a lot coming from you," he replied.

The two men sat in silence for a pensive moment allowing the warm Hawaiian air blow past them and remind them to simply breathe. As they'd done through all the tough times and as they would continue to do so until their final moments came.

Finally after what seemed like a pause in time Danny stood up off the car hood and looked at his watch frowning.

The moment was over.

"Why the hell did Mcgarrett call us in so early if he was going to be forty-five minutes late?" Danny thought about that for a split second... Then exploded; "When the hell is he _ever_ late!? Should we be calling backup?" Chin glanced at his watch and shrugged;

"He did say Catherine was going to visit last night..."

The two men looked at one another and a heartbeat later doubled over laughing once again.

They were still quite pleased with themselves when Steve's familiar blue pickup came whizzing up at breakneck speeds before screeching to a halt in the space next to them. The head of Five-0 leapt out of his truck froze then raised an eyebrow at his two grinning team mates.

"What's so funny?" He asked with his classic "miffed" face.

"Not a thing," Chin replied instantly schooling his features like the master he was. Danny however was hopeless and when the Hawaiian spoke again, the Jersey native was lost;

"How's Catherine?" came the innocent question. Danny crumpled into the car hood absolutely roaring with laughter.

"Snipers with laser guided pee chucking poop grenades!" He barked. Chin's shoulders were starting to shake so bad that the man had to walk away after that comment while Steve just continued to look innocently and horribly confused.

"What? _What_?" their boss demanded.

Later that afternoon the day had been a busy one filled with paperwork, a meeting and a spectacular running tackle of a suspect on Waikiki beach in front of dozens of tourist.

Kono had gotten a round of applause when she finished the feet and hauled her suspect to his knees slapping the cuffs on him.

Now, it was more paperwork, more phone calls, but all in all, it was a clockwork day that was almost a half hour from being over. That was when Steve found Danny in his office, aneurysm face in full effect.

"Don't suppose you're going to explain to me what you and Chin were laughing about this morning either, are you?" He asked. Danny sat back in his chair and put his hands smugly behind his head.

"What did he say?" the detective asked.

"That you were telling him what its like to have kids," Steve replied. Danny beamed.

"Then that's what we were doing." Steve didn't look the least bit satisfied but he shrugged.

"Whatever it was, it was good to see Chin laugh like that, nice work partner," he said. Danny's smile developed a warm air to it before he took a bow in his chair.

"Nothing I wouldn't do for you or anyone else."

"Now _that_ I do believe," Steve smiled. Just then Chin happened by the open office door taking a sip of coffee in his hand. Danny sat forward and as loudly as he dared asked his partner;

"You ever thought about having kids Steve?"

Needless to say, coffee was spewed all over the hallway floor while Chin choked and laughed at the same time. Steve startled while Danny simply grinned quite pleased with himself.

Whoever said "laughter is the best medicine," they couldn't have been more right.

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**Aaaand boom goes the dynamite... ha ha. Love to hear some reviews on this one. It's my first branching away from Steve and Danny fic even though I still got Steve in there eventually!**

**Have fun and write lots all! I will be reading!**

**Oz**


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